It's a deep dive into the history and formation of the boutique hotel business, Ron gives a tip of the hat to boutique founding father Bill Kimpton and fast forwards to today’s segment which sees The Gettys Group designing boutique properties in tertiary cities. Ron talks about the diligence of research as a design precursor, the strategy of differentiation form a property’s competitive set, and shares his principals on designing the built environment.

Raul Leal, the CEO of Virgin Hotels. Raul - a career hotelier that was influenced by his father’s hospitality career - shares great insight regarding how Virgin brand wanted to break into the hotel sector, and how their inaugural hotel became the #1 hotel in the US. Raul discusses how Virgin identified key concepts that displeased guests and designed solutions to make those experiences better. Raul shares how unique each new project is from one another, all while encompassing the Virgin brand.

In this inaugural edition of the Hotel Design Podcast we feature an incredibly engaging discussion with Larry Traxler, SVP of Global Design at Hilton Worldwide. Larry talks about some of the design challenges and solutions that the brand has faced, along with how some of Hilton’s signature brands were developed and differ from each other. Larry also offers advice to students that are considering hospitality design as a career path, along with fascinating news regarding his philanthropic work.